I really enjoyed the film at the cinema, but, despite being a big Giacchino fan, I was not grabbed by the score. Certainly not for the ludicrous price Amazon UK were charging for it. I've watched this thread bob back on to the front page so often over the last few months, so full of praise for the score, I took another look, and managed to get it for a much better price. I've been playing it today and, well, I was wrong and you guys were right. Thanks for steering me gradually in the direction of such a marvellous score!

Craig Lysy I met up with Michael Giacchino at the Eastwood Scoring Stage on the Warner Brothers Lot in Burbank today, and presented him with his 2012 IFMCA Award for Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror for John Carter.

Michael was as cool and laid-back as he always is, very approachable and easy to chat with. We hung around for about 20 minutes or so on the scoring stage, where he was mixing his score for the upcoming Pixar animated short 'Toy Story of Terror', which will air in the United States on ABC at Halloween.

We also gave him his certificates for his TWELVE prior IFMCA wins, going all the way back to The Incredibles in 2004! We had never managed to get together to give him his awards before, so it was nice to be able to finally get him all caught up!

There's a move on the internet to push for a sequel. They even have a logo.

Check it out.

I'm in the same club. I thought this move was very good. The look of the movie that that mixed late 19th century and futuristic design sensibilities really helped me to buy the storyline. Loved the music too, and have had the soundtrack since it came out.

Still [...] cannot understand why this jewel of a film was not a gigantic hit.

From what I've read, part of it is the director's fault. He didn't want the advertising to say anything like "From the director of A Bug's Life/Finding Nemo/WALL-E" or "From Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan;" nothing like that. He seemed convinced that it would perform on the strength of the name "John Carter" alone, but these days more people probably associate that name with E.R. than anything else. It was almost like the director sabotaged his own movie.

Plus, without a reference to it being from the same author who created Tarzan, many probably thought it looked like just a big rip-off of every other sci-fi epic that had come along over the years. It took so long to get a real JC movie made that in that time so many other films had already used various aspects of it, to the point this looked to many like it was just rife with every sci-fi/fantasy cliche. When in reality this was the very story from which all that stuff originally sprang.

In any event, the important thing is that movie was indeed terrific, although I would have liked to seen an extended edition, as reportedly a lot of footage was cut that would have better clarified certain aspects. It's one of the most entertaining and (gasp) FUN movies I've seen in theaters in a long time. I can see it being reevaluated and becoming a cult classic in the future.

Thought this was a very boring movie with a very uncharismatic lead actor.

Not surprised it was a massive flop.

Sure someone else may have been better but I thought he was fine and certainly more charismatic than say Sam Worthington who starred in a very similar movie not much earlier that actually WAS derivative...I am of course talking about Avatar, the highest grossing movie of all time.

So is someone actually going to tell me that John Carter is a B movie with A production values but Avatar is somehow different? Just because it 'takes itself more seriously' or some such? I guess Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars are B movies too...gee I wish we had more B movies like that.